Key Facts Alibaba’s AI-Fueled Stock Surge Alibaba Group sparked a market frenzy to kick off September, as its shares in Hong Kong leapt nearly 19% on Sept. 1 – the stock’s biggest single-day jump since 2022 tbsnews.net. The rally came after Alibaba’s latest earnings revealed better-than-expected results in its cloud computing unit, thanks in large…
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Key Facts Government Crackdowns on Digital Access Russia doubles down on censorship: In a dramatic escalation of internet control, Russia implemented new laws on September 1 targeting both communication platforms and online content. The Kremlin is forcing a switch from WhatsApp and Telegram to a domestic messaging app called “Max,” which was launched in June by…
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Key Facts Summary Starlink’s Global Surge and the Satellite Internet Race Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) satellite internet continues its explosive growth, dramatically expanding global internet access. SpaceX Starlink, the largest LEO constellation, hit a new milestone in late August 2025 with over 7 million active subscribers worldwide spaceflightnow.com – up from 4 million a year prior – served by…
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Crypto Market Turbulence and Trading Highlights Bitcoin and Ether Retreat: Late August saw notable profit-taking in crypto markets. Bitcoin (BTC) tumbled to about $108,400 – its lowest level since early July – after soaring to a record $124,000 on Aug. 13 cryptonews.com. This ~10% pullback from the all-time high extended BTC’s weekly losses to nearly…
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Swiss exports reached a record CHF 26.7 billion in 2023. The Big Four—Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Richard Mille—account for nearly 44% of Swiss watch market value. Rolex became the first Swiss brand to exceed CHF 10 billion in annual revenue and sold about 1.24 million watches in 2023, roughly 30% of the market.…
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Investors braced for Powell’s Jackson Hole speech as the S&P 500 fell 0.4% and the Dow and Nasdaq were down about 0.34%. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said there is ‘no case for reducing interest rates’ now, while Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic still penciled in a 2025 rate cut. Futures indicated a 70–75% probability…
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OpenAI released GPT-5 on August 7 with a 256,000-token context window. OpenAI released open-weight GPT-OSS models GPT-OSS 120B and GPT-OSS 20B under the Apache 2.0 license on August 5. Anthropic expanded Claude’s context window to 1,000,000 tokens in August. NVIDIA announced the GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip, a CPU+GPU combo designed for AI workloads and set…
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In Qatar, drone operations require prior authorization from the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA); unapproved flights are illegal. Only Qatari citizens and permanent residents may operate drones; foreign visitors are not permitted to fly. Every drone flight requires a QCAA permit, and owning a drone does not grant the right to fly. Recreational drone use…
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North America Europe Asia-Pacific Latin America Middle East & Africa Sources: Reuters, et al. – Verified news reports from Aug 20–21, 2025 reuters.com reuters.com reuters.com reuters.com reuters.com reuters.com (See inline citations for details)
As of mid-2025, commercial N-type TOPCon cells reach about 23–24% efficiency, with best mass-produced TOPCon modules at 23.8% and JinkoSolar reporting 26.4% cell efficiency in tests. Heterojunction (HJT) solar cells regularly reach 25%+ efficiency in production, with Longi reporting a 27.3% lab cell efficiency. Perovskite–silicon tandem cells have surpassed 33% efficiency in labs (Longi 33.9%,…
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